58 THE ABYSSINIAN. 



THE ABYSSINIAN. 



I NOW come to the last variety of the tabby cat, and 

 this can scarcely be called a tabby proper, as it is nearly 

 destitute of markings, excepting sometimes on the legs 

 and a broad black band along the back. It is mostly of 

 a deep brown, ticked with black, somewhat resembling 

 the back of a wild (only not so gray) rabbit. Along the 

 centre of the back, from the nape of the neck to the tip of 

 the tail; there is a band of black, very slightly interspersed 

 with dark brown hairs. The inner sides of the legs and 

 belly are more of a rufous-orange tint than the body, and 

 are marked in some cases with a few dark patches ; but they 

 are best without these marks, and in the exhibition pens it 

 is a point lost. The eyes are deep yellow, tinted with 

 green ; nose dark red, black-edged ; ears rather small, dark 

 brown, with black edges and tips ; the pads of the feet are 

 black. Altogether, it is a pretty and interesting variety. 

 It has been shown under a variety of names, such as 

 Russian, Spanish, Abyssinian, Hare cat, Rabbit cat, and 

 some have gone so far as to maintain that it is a cross 

 between the latter and a cat, proving very unmistakably 

 there is nothing, however absurd or impossible, in animal 

 or everyday life, that some people are not ready to credit 

 and believe. A hybrid between the English wild cat and 

 the domestic much resembles it ; and I do not consider it 

 different in any way, with the exception of its colour, from 

 the ordinary tabby cat, from which I have seen kittens and 

 adults bearing almost the same appearance. Some years 

 ago when out rabbit-shooting on the South Downs, not 

 far from Eastbourne, one of our party shot a cat of this 

 colour in a copse not far from the village of Eastdean. 

 He mistook it at first for a rabbit as it dashed into 



